Sixense Kickstarts Wireless Controllers

PORTLAND, Ore. — Even established companies are starting to use Kickstarter. Witness motion-tracking platform maker Sixense Entertainment Inc. of Los Gatos, Calif., which will make first deliveries of its second-generation motion-tracking platform and system development kit (SDK) to Kickstarter backers. The Sixense Tracking Embedded Module (STEM) -- the company's first wireless motion-tracking platform -- will launch as a Kickstarter project on Sept. 12.

The STEM system is a six-degrees-of-freedom absolute motion tracker using proprietary magnetic coils -- instead of MEMS chips -- housed in a small oblong module (see photo) that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can embed in their own controllers.

Sixense's new wireless controller houses the oblong Sixense Tracking Embedded Module (STEM, left), which OEMs can embed in their own specialized controllers, such as a head-mounted display, golf club, or tennis racket.
(Source: Sixense)

"MEMS is fine for consumer-grade motion tracking," says Sixense cofounder Amir Rubin. "But to achieve the accurate, real-time response of the STEM system required a high-resolution electro-magnetic technology like that used in high-end military and medical devices."

The STEM system supports the simultaneous use of up to five controllers, and its STEM tracker module can be embedded by OEMs into controllers with form-factors that match their applications.

The STEM base station houses the magnetic beacon as well as recharges the controllers and up to three power packs.

"OEMs can embed the STEM tracker to a controller housing for their own specific application -- a head-mounted display, a golf club, a boxing glove, whatever," Rubin told us.

STEM measures position on all three axes (X, Y, Z) while simultaneously measuring orientation (pitch, yaw, roll) by virtue of the handset's response to a magnetic beacon in a base station. The 240 Hz system has low latency (4.2 milliseconds) and communicates with the controllers using a wireless chip set from Oslo's Nordic Semiconductor ASA under the direction of an Analog Devices microcontroller.

STEM is backward compatible with its previous generation motion-tracking platform -- including its OEM's Razar Hydra, which is popular among PC gamers. All development hardware and software from Sixense is open-source, permitting OEMs to modify it in any way. Kickstarter backers will be the first to receive the STEM SDK with all details revealed on Sept. 12 when the Kickstarter project kicks off.

More than a bruised ego, failure on Kickstarter (or Indiegogo or Rockethub etc.) can lead to enormous learning and inspiration for future success. Consider our mutual friend Doug Lyon, chair of the Computer Science Department at Fairfield U. Doug wanted to figure out how Kickstarter worked so he could teach his engineering students. His first run, "Automatic Robot Camera", failed spectacularly ($238 raised for $10,000 goal). Embracing the learning experience, his second run, "Arduino Digital Signal Processor", did much better ($7,859 raised for $2,000 goal). Now he's having a great time building and delivering the product including learning all about the joys contract assemblers, order fullfillment, regulatory requirements, customer demands etc.

In Doug's view, our modern economy demands that engineering students learn to be employers as well as employees. Crowdfunding is a great way to get started.

And to carry your (@marknowotarski) point one step further - if a product is destined to be a complete market failure, a miserable showing on Kickstarter only bruises your ego. There are not millions of dollars of unsold inventory rusting in the warehouse or being discounted for pennies on the dollar. I wonder whether the questions posed by prospective buyers also help point the company in the direction of what people DO want.

Sometimes not making your goal can be more valuable than making it. You get all the buzz without any of the obligation. Consider Ubunto Edge over on Indiegogo. They got $12.8 million in pledges from 27.6k backers. Great support! But their goal was $30 million. So no obligation, but an instant community of support.

Kickstarter could simply be used as a marketing channel to launch new products. Not only does it enable companies to gauge interest in new products, it drive pre-launch orders, creates an advertising channel to a community of innovative users, and generates creates community "buzz". This method is probably a lot cheaper (even with the commission to Amazon) than a conventional launch with paid advertising.